When the Checkered Flag Comes Down
by Doc Sock
Summary: Jessica Jones/Luke Cage/Danny Rand/Matt Murdock: In which Matt trades himself for Foggy, and Luke and Danny rescue him.


**When the Checkered Flag Comes Down**

Matt got the call at 2pm. Becky patched it through to him, her voice trembling when she told him he would want to take this call. It was one of Owlsley's men on the line; he almost didn't recognize the second heartbeat in the room and the harsh panting that went along with it.

Foggy.

"So you see, Murdock," the voice on the other end of the line said, "it's quite simple. You for him."

He didn't even try to protest that he wasn't Daredevil, just committing the address to memory and swearing he'd be there. "If you hurt him..." he warned, but the man just laughed and Foggy screamed.

"You're not in a position to bargain," he said and then the line was buzzing in Matt's ear.

It took him several seconds to unclench his fingers from the receiver.

###

The trade went smoothly. Unfortunately, Owlsley's men weren't fools. They trussed him up like a Thanksgiving turkey before releasing Foggy, who seemed to be okay. At any rate, he was able to take off as soon as he was loosed.

Yet another time Foggy was in danger because of his nightlife. How long would it be before he couldn't take any more and dissolved their partnership?

There were five men in the room with him, twenty or so more spread out through the warehouse. He could take them, if only-

A fist smashed into the side of his head.

###

When Matt came to, the first thing he felt was the ache radiating across his shoulders. He hung from his wrists, hands stretched high above his head, and his feet barely able to touch the floor. He couldn't get enough purchase on the ground to lift himself up and allow his aching shoulders some relief. The rest of his arms had already gone numb. Even if he could get down, they'd be useless.

When a fist slammed into his ribs, he wasn't surprised.

###

"Mister Murdock." He didn't lift his head at Owlsley's voice. His back was on fire and it hurt to breathe. He didn't know how long they'd spent working him over, but he welcomed the reprieve when Owlsley came into the room, however brief it was.

"Do you want to know how we found your friend, Murdock?"

He tried to focus on anything other than the pain racking his body. His shoulders had gone numb long ago. "You walked into him on the street?" he mumbled through puffy lips.

Owlsley snarled and raked one sharp talon down his face. Matt ground his teeth as his skin split beneath its tip, refusing to give him the pleasure of a scream.

"Your friend, Iron Fist, told me where to go," he said.

"He wouldn't-"

"Oh, you'd be surprised what he'd do to save the tramp he's sticking his dick in now. Luke Cage's girl, Jessica something, I believe."

Through the fog of pain as Owlsley slid his hand up under the leather of his costume and raked his talons across his bruised ribs, Matt managed to say, "He'd never... never do that... to Luke."

"Turn it on," Owlsley snapped over his shoulder. Matt could hear a tape beginning to wind in a VCR, and soon the unmistakeable sound of sex penetrated his fog, and he could hear Jessica moaning "Oh fuck, Danny, harder, fuck, right there."

He wasn't sure what hurt more, Owlsley's men starting to work him over again or knowing that his friends weren't infallible.

###

The next time he came to, there were more heartbeats in the room. The two conscious ones he could identify as Luke and Danny. The rest of the people were unconscious, his groan letting him see a few of the closer bodies lying in heaps on the floor.

"Luke, help me-" When Danny touched his side, he flinched away, setting himself swinging on the rope, pain screaming through his shoulders at the movement. "Matt, it's okay, it's me, Danny. We're going to get you down."

How _could_ he? How could he be here, pretending nothing was wrong? That he hadn't- Did Luke even know that Jessica was cheating on him with his best friend? He screamed – he couldn't help it – when Luke lifted him and blood rushed back to the muscles in his arms. It burned like someone had set them on fire, but he gritted his teeth and choked back the noises he wanted to make, refusing to let himself pass out again.

They cut him down and when Danny began massaging one arm, he tried to jerk it away, but his muscles weren't listening to him. The blood surging back into the muscles left it burning and unresponsive, the pins and needles enough that he almost would rather they just cut it off.

"Don't touch me," he snarled instead, the words coming out slurred through his split lip. His tongue felt swollen and heavy in his mouth.

"I know it hurts," Danny pretended to soothe, "but you need to get the blood flowing after being strung up so long."

He tried to jerk his arm away again, but it was like it had been replaced with a limp noodle. As Luke's fingers pressed and twisted into the muscles of his other arm, he allowed himself to be relieved that at least there were no bruises on his arms or shoulders for Luke's fingers to dig into.

"Does Luke know you're fucking Jessica?" he slurred. It was getting harder to talk around the pain, and as he said it, he realized that maybe he should have waited until they were alone to ask. But the two of them just started to laugh. Danny's fingers dug into one of the muscles in his shoulder, and the fresh wave of pain was overwhelming. He finally passed out.

###

Matt woke up laying on a soft surface. Cool fingers were brushing through his hair, Danny's fingers, and he relaxed into the touch for a moment before remembering what Danny had done. He shook his head, dislodging Danny's fingers, and struggled to sit up. His entire body hurt, and his arms were still weak and shivery. Jessica, who had been crouching next to him, reached out to help him, and he tensed when she touched him.

"Don't," he snapped, managing to lever himself up without assistance. He could hear Luke in the bathroom, rummaging around in the medicine cabinet, probably getting supplies to patch him up.

"How are you feeling?" Jessica asked, and he ducked away from her hand as she reached out to touch the cut on his cheek. She froze, and dropped her hand.

He used to watch her and Luke together, wishing he could find something like that. Wishing that he could find a relationship as _stable_ as what the two of them had. To find out it was built on a lie... It crushed his hopes of ever having anything like that for himself. If they couldn't, who could? He felt just as betrayed by her as he did by Danny.

"I need to find Foggy," he said, trying to get to his feet without much success. "Where's my mask?"

"Foggy's fine," Danny told him as Jessica pressed him back down onto the couch. There wasn't much he could do to resist her, but he flashed her what he hoped was a sufficiently angry glare. "Not a scratch on him. He came straight to us, and-"

"Got everything," Luke said, interrupting Danny as he strode into the living room. Between the clatter of things he dropped on the coffee table, the noxious cologne he was wearing, and the blow to the had Matt had got before, his head was beginning to throb.

"Sit back," Jessica ordered him, pressing harder on his shoulders until he relaxed against the couch. "Let me look at your face."

He hissed as she slowly blotted a warm cloth over the cut, and yelped when she switched to hydrogen peroxide. The fizz in the cut sent shivers of pain running through him.

He waited until she was satisfied with how clean it was before saying, in a low voice, "Were you even thinking about Luke when you and Danny were..." he drifted off as she began to snicker.

"Yeah, actually," she said smugly. "Who do you think made the video Owlsley managed to get his grubby paws on?"

He gaped, snarling out a "Don't touch me" when Danny moved to dab warm water on his split lip.

The three of them are laughing at him. The anger coursing through his body was preferable to the pain, and he let himself wallow in it for a moment, before shoving himself off the couch and to his feet. His left leg was unsteady underneath him, the limp slowing him enough that Danny was able to get between him and the door.

He was still chuckling as he grabbed Matt's arm and said, "Hey, you're not going anywhere while you're still hurt."

Matt couldn't put his usual amount of force behind the blow, not with his arms feeling like jelly, but he still managed to catch Danny by surprise and get in a good right hook across his jaw.

Danny dropped his arm, his hands coming up to cradle his jaw as he shouted, "What the fuck, Matt! What the fuck was that for?" ending with a quiet, moaned, "owwww."

Luke and Jessica were standing by the couch in shock, their hearts racing. Before he could start moving again, Jessica was by Danny's side, grabbing his chin and turning his face away from her so she could inspect the bruise blooming on the side of his face.

"What the fuck is your _problem_?" she snapped at Matt.

"Selling out Foggy? Really? He doesn't even-" he sputtered. "He isn't- Couldn't you have come up with something _else_ to bargain with? You know where I live, you could have told him that, why would you drag _Foggy_ into it?"

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked, his voice bewildered. "Did you hit your head? Someone check his pupils-" he broke off as Jessica sighed. "Oh, right. Still."

Matt had no clue what was going on, but he let the two of them drag him back to the couch. They were honestly confused, even Danny. If he hadn't sold out Foggy, then how did Owlsley know where to find him? He remembered how Owlsley hadn't touched him until he made the crack about stumbling across Foggy on the street. Could that be...?

"Sit down," Luke said, coming over to him. "You look like you're gonna fall over."

He sank down onto the couch and Jessica crouched back in front of him, her cool hands passing gently over the bruises on his face. "The Owl said that you and Danny were going behind Luke's back and, and. And that Danny told him where Foggy was in exchange for him letting you go-"

"Letting me go?" she laughed. "He never had me in the first place."

"You _believed_ him?" Danny asked, sitting down beside him, sounding incredulous. "Seriously?"

"He had a tape!" Matt tried to defend himself. It wasn't that far-fetched, and it wouldn't be the first time one of his friends was caught up in some crazy plot to get at him. He was surprised none of them had been sucked under a bus yet; they were all past due.

"So?" Danny argued. "You thought I would sell out Foggy? Really? Sorry Jess, but not even for you. It's not like Foggy can handle himself in a situation like that. You are such an idiot, Matt."

He bristled at that, one hand curling into a fist. Jessica covered it with one of her own hands, prising his fingers apart and massaging the muscles of his hand. "Really, he's right Matt. How could you think that?"

"He had the tape," he mumbled again, pulling his hand out of her grip and crossing his arms over his chest. The leather of his costume creaked as he sat back against the couch, and he could see the mocking smile on her face.

"Oh Matt," she said, laughing a little. Even Luke was chuckling. It wasn't like it had been all that far-fetched. Hell, if Luke had been the one to do it, he would have understood. He could feel his lower lip starting to stick out a little, and he hoped none of them noticed.

Luke came and sat next to him, the couch dipping as he did so. "Anywhere else that needs looking at?"

"I'm fine," he said shortly, ignoring the pull down his ribs as he shifted and the ache in his lower back. "What did you expect me to think?"

Danny put his arm around him, and he definitely did not relax into the touch. "Seriously, Matt, look at us." He paused. "You know what I mean. Would we do that to each other? To you?"

He considered it. Danny didn't know what he was talking about, didn't know how far people could be pushed and the things they would do once someone they loved was in danger. He frowned when Danny laughed again.

"The three of us decided that some things were better with three," he said and paused. If there had been any telepaths in the room, Matt would have sworn they were having a conversation without him. Finally, Danny said, "You want in?"

Did he want- He couldn't form a rational response to that, instead sitting there like a deer in the headlights. When Luke gently turned his head and pressed his lips against Matt's, Matt still couldn't do anything. Luke was gentle, his lips moving softly over Matt's, not pressing hard enough to make his split lip hurt. He felt woozy from the idea.

No, he just felt woozy, period. When Luke's hands slid up underneath his top, much like Owlsley's had by infinitely gentler, he gasped in pain as the dried blood that had crusted the leather to the gashes in his side cracked.

"Let me," he said, wobbling to his feet and slowly pulling the top of his costume over his head. He hissed as the wound cracked open and began weeping blood and lymph again.

"Oh christ Matt," Jessica breathed as Luke said, "On what fucking planet is this 'fine'?"

"Shower," Danny said. "Now."

Matt swayed a little. Maybe he was more hurt than he thought, because it was starting to get hard to hear anything. He took a step forward, and crumpled to the floor.

###

Hot water pounding against his face woke him up, and he spluttered. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Oh thank God," he heard Jessica mutter under her breath. He could see her and Luke almost as clearly as if he could see again as the water pounded in the bath tub. Luke, who was propping him up, reached up and angled the shower head down more so it wasn't hitting Matt in the face.

He tried to stand, to take his weight off Luke, but his legs wouldn't hold him. Jessica was running a soapy cloth across his back, over the bruises and cuts. He moaned with pain when she began to wash the blood off the deepest slice across his ribs.

"How," she said, her voice tight, "is this fine? What part of 'Anywhere else need looking at' didn't you understand?"

"It didn't seem that bad," he mumbled, letting himself lean against Luke's wet chest. He could hear his heartbeat, loud and steady and soothing in his ear.

"Didn't seem that-" Jessica repeated. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I was going to take care of it myself later?" he tried. She paused in her ministrations, and Luke's arm tightened around him.

"Don't kill him Jess," he heard Danny say from somewhere out in the bathroom.

"I ought to," she muttered, dropping her forehead to lean against his shoulder. "What were you _thinking_ Matt?"

He hadn't been. He'd been to angry at them to be thinking of himself, and even when he did consider himself, he had just wanted to stop bothering them and get out of there. To leave them to their happy little threesome and go back to his empty apartment.

He chose not to say anything, and soon enough she resumed running the washcloth over his body. Soon, he felt that he could stand on his own, and carefully pushed off of Luke to take his own weight. The heat that was trapped with him between the two bodies was beginning to make his head spin again. Just as he was about to say something, Luke switched off the water.

"Out," he ordered, holding onto Matt's arm.

He was grateful for the extra support, and let Danny wrap him in a fluffy towel as soon as he was over the edge of the tub. When Danny led him out of the room, supporting him on the least damaged side, and letting him sling an arm over his shoulder, he didn't protest. He hurt everywhere, and the heat from the shower had made him tired, and he just wanted to lie down somewhere and lick his wounds. He'd managed to ruin probably the only chance he would ever get of knowing what it was like to be part of Jessica and Luke's family.

"Lie down," Danny ordered. "On your stomach, so we can look at your back."

Matt didn't protest, crawling up on to the bed and feeling Danny crawl above him. When he felt Danny's fingers beginning to work in the muscles of his shoulders, kneading out tension he hadn't even realized he was carrying, he groaned and buried his head in the pillow. It smelled like Luke and Jessica, and a little bit of Danny.

He barely registered the edge of the bed sinking as Jessica sat on one side and began rubbing cream into the slashes in his side. "They don't look like they'll need stitches," she said quietly. "Is there anywhere else that hurts, Matt?"

He mumbled something incoherent into the pillow.

"Okay," she said.

The other side of the bed sagged as Luke sat down on it. One of his hands landed on Matt's ankle, a thumb rubbing across the ankle bone. Matt finally, finally felt himself relax, the tension all easing out of his body at once. He was warm, and calm, and happy. He briefly wondered if they had drugged him while he'd been unconscious, before slipping off into sleep.

###

When Matt woke up, light was just beginning to spill in through the curtains. He was surrounded by a pile of bodies, Jessica and Danny and Luke curled around him protectively, all three of them still sound asleep. He knew he should be feeling bad for taking up their bed when the couch would have been just fine, but he just couldn't force himself to. His entire body hurt, the gashes up his side burning when he stirred a little, but he was so _comfortable_, even with the pain.

He heard Danny's heart rate speeding up as he slowly woke up, and could feel his eyes on him.

"Hey Matt," Danny whispered, tightening his hand around Matt's body. "You scared the shit out of us last night. How are you feeling?"

"Sore," he said honestly, "but I'll live."

"Too sore for a foursome when they wake up?" Danny asked, and Matt felt a slow smile spread across his face as he relaxed back into Danny's embrace.

No, not too sore for that at all.

END


End file.
